Have you ever opened a dictionary to look up a word, only to find yourself
distracted by another word on the page? The definition of that word steers
you to yet another, some two hundred pages ahead, and before you know it
your fingers are cavorting as if in a random dance on the leaves of the
lexicon.

This week's words in AWAD were chosen by following precisely that route.
You could call it Brownian Motion, Browsing the Web, or Looking Words Up
In a Dictionary.

asperity

PRONUNCIATION:

(ah-SPER-i-tee)

MEANING:

noun:
Harshness or roughness.

ETYMOLOGY:

Via French from Latin asper (rough).

USAGE:

"We must expect posterity
to view with some asperity
the marvels and the wonders
we're passing on to it;
but it should change its attitude
to one of heartfelt gratitude
when thinking of the blunders
we didn't quite commit."
Our Greatest Achievement; Piet Hein; Grooks.

Real misanthropes are not found in solitude, but in the world; since it is experience of life, and not philosophy, which produces real hatred of mankind. -Giacomo Leopardi, poet, essayist, and philosopher (1798-1837)